Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is cracking down on corporate law firms with Texas offices that he alleges promote employment practices aimed at increasing workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to the Office of the Attorney General. This follows federal officials’ request for information about law firms’ DEI initiatives last month.
On Thursday, Paxton and attorneys general from 11 other states sent letters to 20 law firms. Thirteen of these firms have Texas offices but aren’t headquartered in the state, according to KERA.
In the letters, the AGs accuse the companies of potentially violating federal and state employment discrimination laws by endorsing hiring practices such as “diversity fellowships, setting hiring goals with targets for greater representation of minority groups, and DEI programs that entail unlawful disparate treatment in terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.”
These letters are the latest attack on lawyers and law firms bolstered by the Trump administration. Many of the firms that have received the letters represented clients who have challenged President Donald Trump’s policies and prosecuted him and his allies.
Critics argue that Trump’s orders specifically attack lawyers and firms he holds grudges against — and that these orders are unconstitutional. One of the letters’ recipients, WilmerHale, employed Robert Mueller, the former U.S. special counsel who led an investigation into the Russian government’s influence on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Last month, the White House directed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review employment practices of “large, influential, or industry leading law firms” to check their compliance with the Civil Rights Act. The statement singled out another listed law firm, Perkins Coie, which represented Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign, and accused it of racial discrimination against its staff and conspiring with “activist donors.” The firm also hired strategic intelligence firm Fusion GPS to look into whether the Trump campaign and the Russian government manipulated the 2016 election.
Paxton also issued sanctions against Perkins Coie attorneys in 2021, accusing them of trying to re-implement straight-ticket voting in Texas and submitting misleading information. Paxton pointed out that the firm provides counsel for the Democratic National Committee.
“The blatantly illegal employment discrimination perpetuated by law firms and other businesses under un-American DEI ideology must be brought to an immediate and permanent end,” said Paxton in a statement on Thursday. “I am leading the charge at the state level to support President Trump’s efforts to end this insanity and restore equal treatment. Employers should look at qualifications, not quotas, in their hiring decisions.”
Andrea Lucas, the acting chair of the EEOC appointed by Trump, sent similar letters to the same law firms on March 17. According to both letters from Lucas and AGs, companies have until April 15 to respond with the requested information.
In a memo issued last month, the White House ordered AGs to seek disciplinary action against lawyers whose conduct “appears to violate professional conduct rules” or who work on “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious” matters against the federal government. Attorneys can face consequences such as losing their license to practice law.
Read more at KERA.
